“Conservatory Sundays: Music Alive!” September 29 at The Fisher Center

The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts presents “Conservatory Sundays: Music Alive!” on Sunday, September 29 at 3 p.m. in the Sosnoff Theater.

Curated by artistic directors Joan Tower, Grammy Award – winning composer, and Blair McMillen, pianist, this exciting program of 20th– and 21st-​​century music showcases works performed by students from The Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Music Program.

More than 40 performers offer a colorful selection of music in a program that includes Osvaldo Golijov’s The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind (1994); the première of Alchemie (from Fixations) (2011) by Tamzin Elliott ’17; Joan Tower’s Duets (1994); Pixelated (2010) by Daniel Wohl ’03; and Louis Andriessen’s Workers Union (1975).

About the Artists:

Blair McMillen — Image by Tanaka

Hailed by the New York Times as “riveting,” “brilliant,” and as “new music’s torchbearer,” Blair McMillen has established himself as one of the most versatile and sought-​​after pianists today. He has performed in venues both traditional and avant-​​garde, from Carnegie Hall, the Moscow Conservatory, Metropolitan Museum, Caramoor, Miller Theatre, and the Library of Congress to Poisson Rouge, Galapagos, The Knitting Factory, and The Stone. Highlights from recent seasons include the Walter Piston Concertino at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra, over a dozen performances of John Cage’s piano magnum opus Sonatas and Interludes, and numerous appearances with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. An avid chamber player, McMillen is pianist for the Naumburg Award – winning Da Capo Chamber Players, among others. He is co-​​founder and director of the Rite of Summer Music Festival on New York City’s Governor’s Island, an alt-​​classical outdoor series that had its critically acclaimed inaugural season in summer 2011. McMillen holds degrees from Oberlin College, The Juilliard School, and Manhattan School of Music. He lives in New York City and serves on the music faculty at Bard College.

Joan Tower-​​Image by Janos Sutyak

Joan Tower is widely regarded as one of the most important American composers living today. During a career spanning more than 50 years, she has made lasting contributions to musical life in the United States as a composer, performer, conductor, and educator. Her works have been commissioned by major ensembles, soloists, and orchestras, including the Emerson, Tokyo, and Muir quartets; soloists Evelyn Glennie, Carol Wincenc, David Shifrin, and John Browning; and the orchestras of Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C., among others. In 2008, Tower received three Grammy awards for a CD of her orchestral music on the Naxos label, and in 1990 she was the recipient of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Music. She is Asher B. Edelman Professor in the Arts at Bard College, where she has taught since 1972.
Joan Tower’s music is published by Associated Music Publishers.

The series continues with:

Conservatory Orchestra on Sunday, November 10, with music director Leon Botstein conducting. The program includes Rossini’s Overture to William Tell; Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegel; and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 in A Major, Op. 141.

On Sunday, December 8, Jeffrey Kahane will conduct the Conservatory Orchestra in a program of Chausson’s Poème, for violin and orchestra, Op. 25, with Sabrina Tabby ’14; Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 58; and Brahms’s Symphony No. 1.